15th Council Meeting of the Tshwane Metro 27th of September 2007
Part 4 Item 13
NEW MEDIA the citizen journalism
From a blog by
Sikonathi Mantshantsha
"Fellow South Africans, it's that time to change place names again -
castigate all those apartheid vestiges. Lets show them who is in charge
now."
I take this as the sentiment of the day and can support some name changes
BUT…
Let us look at it with much thought and not emotions.
On Monday 24 September 2007 (Heritage Day), the documentary
BRAM FISHER’S STORY: LOVE, COMMUNISM, REVOLUTION AND RIVONIA was shown on M.Net at 3 pm:
Bram Fisher (Afrikaner), Advocate QC was one of the advocates for the
defense of Nelson Mandela and the other accused in the Rivonia trial.
Later on he became head of the underground movement of the Communist
Party of SA and one of their aims was to overthrow the National Party
government because of their apartheid policy. He was caught by the
Security police and brought to trial in March 1966. He was found guilty
and got life imprisonment. After 7 years in jail he got cancer and 2
weeks before he died he was allowed to go home to his family and died
at home.
The point I want to make is…
In his Statement from the Dock, at the end of his trial, on the 28
March 1966, he quoted from the speech of Pres. Paul Kruger to the
President and Volksraad of the Orange Free State during February 1881
the following words:
"With confidence we lay our case before the whole world. Whether we win
or die, freedom will rise in Africa, like the sun from the morning
cloud."
The facts are that one great Afrikaner freedom fighter (Bram Fisher)
quoted the words from another great Afrikaner freedom fighter (Paul
Kruger), for which he had the greatest respect.
Each of them fought for freedom, Kruger for freedom of the Afrikaner against the English and Fisher for freedom of the African.
And now you want to remove the name of the street that was named after
him? Paul Kruger had absolutely nothing to do with apartheid policies.
They did not even know the meaning of that word those days.
There are several ways of dealing with any issue.
One way could be confrontational and not budging an inch.
This mostly results in damaged relationships.
And another way is to compromise and work together in an atmosphere of reconciliation and love.
This mostly results in a win win situation with a stronger unity to
move forward for the better of any relationship and situation.
The struggle is over and we all live in freedom, African and Afrikaner
We as rulers as leaders should now endeavour to be wise and not fall in
the ugly trap of igniting and flaming division and negative feelings
(tit for tat) and therefore breakdown the miracle reconciliation that
has taken place in South Africa with emotional issues such as this.
The ACDP therefore proposes that we remove only the street names of
those individuals who were directly involved in creating and upholding
apartheid and retain other names entrenched in the history of South
Africa
AnneMarie Sparg
ACDP Councillor Tshwane Metro
079 498 6971